VIDEO: TRUE Automotive Story — The Car That Defined The 1980s, The DeLorean DMC-12

I have two friends who have Deloreans in their collections. I love the styling, but the up close and personal will convince most people to admire it from a distance. Being a loyal fan of two dubious brands (TVR and Jensen), I would not want to immerse myself in another. Iconic car to admire from afar.

In an era when even a Pontiac Trans AM 5 liter only went 0-60 in 10.6 seconds - I would suggest that the VW Rabbit GTI was the car that defined the 1980's. Besides breaking the 10 second barrier at 9.7 seconds - it introduced a whole new segment to the car market - the HOT HATCH - something that endures to this day. Not only did this bring back a performance market after the Oil Crisis defined 70's - but might even say it brought a lot of bigger cars back to performance - such as the Buick Grand National - and others.

Soon - virtually every manufacturer had to compete in the segment - bringing us lots of memorable vehicles both on the 80's and later. IF the DeLorean is claimed to be what defined the 80's - where were the other copy cats? Only Porsche produced other rear engine sports cars at the time - and they pre-dated the DeLorean.

A Delorean without the movie link (Back to the Future) and the cocaine financing / FBI sting, would likely have been forgotten by most and remained an obscure piece of automotive history.

Like the Bricklin.

BobM -I believe that the people who are enamoured by the EVs have failed to take into account several problems that will take time and money to evercome

1 - People in cities that live in high rises and park on the street have no place to charge their cars regularly - and since CITY driving is where EVs are best - this is a BIG problem.
2 - THey also forget that most houses do not have 3 phase 220Volt service - so charging the car may take longer than they think. Adding that service - which is NOT always available - will take time and money.
3 - Our current Electric grid is already bursting at the seams - with problems handling summer A/C. IT will take a major upgrade of the actual grid to handle all this new usage - which will cost Hundreds of Billions of dollars
4 - WE don't have the electricity production capacity to handle a great increase either. Currently - many places get cheaper electricity due to flood control projects producing Hydroelectric. However - it is unlikely that we will be building more of those projects anymore - they are prohibitively expensive today. The addition of coal and gas fired plants will simply move the polution. Wind and Solar are some of the answer - but they simply cannot handle all of the needed power. WHere is the electricity going to come from - Electric Plants are not cheap either- and in Supply and Demand - expect the cost to rise.
4 - WE have a huge ICE support infrastructure - which essentially runs our economy - from Gas stations - to repair facilities - to refineries and pipelines - etc - when these jobs go south - where are the new ones coming from? Again - there will be chaos for a while because a lot of middle class jobs will again be lost. ANd the skills are not transferable either.

I agree. It just like how people think a 50s Corvette is the icon.

Chrysler "K" car defined the 80s more than an under-powered satin Irish import found to be caring some of Columbia's finest.

Absolutely agree.